Recently it has become popular to use different paint colors on the bodywork of motor vehicles like passenger cars. For example cars are desired having a black colored roof while the remainder of the bodywork of the car has a different color. The application of different colors requires two subsequent lacquering processes. In the first step a first lacquer is applied on the entire bodywork of the vehicle. The first lacquer layer has to dry before the second lacquer layer can be applied onto the first lacquer layer. This operation takes a long time and therefore is expensive. Instead of different layers of lacquering appropriately colored polymeric films that can be adhesively attached to the respective portions of the bodywork of a vehicle may be used to provide different colors.
Methods and equipment for applying films to portions of the bodywork of a vehicle and, in particular, to the roof of a car are known in the prior art. The films may be applied to the car surface and then cut into the final shape, as disclosed, for example in international patent application WO01/05902. Care has to be taken to avoid damage of the underlying lacquer layer during the cutting operation. Alternatively, the films are cut into shape prior to the application to the car roof, for example as disclosed in JPH09226007. However, it has turned out that the handling and precise positioning of pre-cut films may be difficult under industrial manufacturing conditions and also in view of typical manufacturing tolerances.
In U.S. Patent Application No. US2006/0169398 an automated system for applying films and cutting when correctly positioned is described.
However, there is still a need to improve the cutting of films to allow easy and precise cutting of film and avoiding damaging the surface of the vehicle to which the films are to be applied.